Monday, August 2, 2010

Guest: Jevron Mc Crory

Please welcome Jevron Mc Crory to VampChix, who provides a closer look to how he got started writing vampires.

Where To Begin?One day, you’re planning your debut novel, the next, you’re guest starring on a blog! Look ma, top of the world!First off, special thanks must go to Michele for giving me this wonderful opportunity to guest on her blog. I can usually ramble away on my own blog and not have to worry about coming off like a lunatic. Not so easy here. I better watch my p’s and q’s. Thanks must also go to the devoted followers of this blog for not only keeping all things ‘vampire’ close to their heart but hopefully taking the time to read my humble words here. I’ll try not to bore.In the beginning, there was The Lost Boys.For me, there’s simply no question about it, my vampire obsession started in 1987 when my older sister eagerly brought the video home for me to sneakily view behind my parents backs. It, quite literally, blew my tiny fragile little mind! Never before had I seen anything so breathlessly intense, so heartstoppingly funny, so downright COOL, and it managed to sear itself so acutely onto the celluloid cinema wall of my brain that I became quite fixated with it. Vampires are cool, it screamed, none more so than the leather motorcycle riding pack’s charismatic spiky bleach blonde haired leader, David. Whoever this Kiefer Sutherland guy was, he was GOOD! So cue laughs, cue chills, cue sheer and utter horror as the infamous campfire scene unspooled before me, and through it all, all I could think, over and over again, was why the hell no one had ever told me about this movie before? Vampires? I now loved them! I had been sucked in! (First and last pun of the post, promise!) My second adolescent thought was, how do I become one? From then on, anything with a vampire in it, I watched.Let’s fast forward a few years.After five un-commissioned screenplays, three short stories and one novella, I finally started sending out query letters to publishers. The one piece of work of mine which I felt was commercially sound and intriguing enough to start shopping around (though it wasn’t vampire based) was my first novella, a twisted little black comedy called Little Napoleon.The premise of the dramedy was simple; what if a cat tried to kill it’s owner? The responses I got to Little Napoleon were all surprisingly positive, even from the very beginning. Wow, I thought, this publishing world’s a lark ain’t it, until the second and third replies started asking for money, which was when I became rather disheartened with it all. These ‘publishers’ were, what I have now since learned, vanity publishers and honestly didn’t seem to care about how well your book did as long as you paid up front. It was all rather sickening. Perhaps I was best sticking to my day job of accounting, and that was when I received a response from Gaynor Stenson, editor at Vamplit Publishing.I must admit, I was stupid. I just thought the name was catchy and didn’t necessarily mean they only published vampire themed works. Needless to say, after a very positive review of Little Napoleon, Gaynor put me right. She loved my writing, she said, but did I have anything slightly more ‘vampiric’ to offer? I laughed out loud. It was all my dreams come true. I may be able to come up with something, I grinned as I typed back excitedly. I’d never written on spec before!Two or so months later, Swan Song was born.Swan Song is essentially about two very damaged individuals. A cynical somewhat reprehensible male music journalist falls for the latest 'big thing' on the music circuit, a beautiful waif like female songstress who proves to be as elusive as her music. She also happens to be a vampire. The story explores why people end up the way they do and how far they are willing to go in order to make the necessary changes, whilst raising morality questions on who could be considered the more evil, the creature who, by necessity, commits horrendous acts or the mortal who simply chooses to do so. I wanted to do a real character piece and limit the amount of 'action' in order to draw the reader in, make what was happening more believable and hopefully more effective. It's a slow burn piece. It was intentionally written as the 'antidote' to Twilight and I wanted it to be everything I thought Twilight wasn't. Fierce, unforgiving and uncompromising. I actually created a template, listed everything about Twilight I disliked, then put the polar opposites into Swan Song. The result is a gritty modern violent London based vampire story that I hope gives the creatures of the night back some of their bite. I truly feel recently the vampire’s fangs have been blunted by Hollywood. I desperately want them re-sharpened and back to bloody business, just like I witnessed for the first time in The Lost Boys.So here I am. My first book published, my very first novella, Little Napoleon, soon hopefully following Swan Song in its published footsteps, and right now, just putting the finishing touches to an exclusive twelve story collection that will expand the exclusive paperback edition of Swan Song, and I couldn’t be happier!

I love writing. I love vampires, but most importantly, I have loved guesting here today. Thank you so kindly for having me. See? It was relatively quick and painless!Please take onboard Swan Song at your leisure and let’s hope we meet up again one of these dark days. I think it’s time we gave the night back to the creatures who deserve it the most.

[Readers, I tried to get this picture up in the post, but once in a while Blogger hates me, so down here it stays. And I have attempted more than a few times to get the text to all be one size. That's my problem; it isn't the author's fault. Blogger just really doesn't want this post to look nice. Sorry about that.]

6 comments:

Jev - you are taking over the blogosphere! I love that Swan Song is an 'antidote to Twilight'. At the end of the day Twilight was written for kids and it reads that way too. And is it just me or do you look wierdly like Dave Grohl in this picture...?

Swan Song is an amazing novella and Jevron's prose is simply brilliant -- I wish I could write as well as he! So good to see you here on VampChix, Jev, and congrats on the forthcoming paperback of Swan Song!

What is this? Some sort of Vamplit Publishing reunion? Or possibly just folks taking care of their own, giving shout-outs and love whenever possible!All kidding aside, "Swan Song" is very good. With a lot of rides, the point comes when we say how great it was, but we're ready to get off now. Not this one. When it's over, you'll be wishing for more.Thanks for the post, Jevron.Thanks for having him, Michele.

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